Speech Disorders Are Treated Faster With Speech Buddies

SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwired - Jan 29, 2014) - A new research study shows that Speech Buddies, a set of speech therapy tools that provide tactile feedback to remediate speech disorders, helped children overcome their speech difficulty faster than children who did not use these tools.

The clinical efficacy study concludes that the children who used Speech Buddies during speech therapy lessons achieved statistically significant mastery of their problem sound in a short-duration regimen. The children who used traditional methods of speech therapy without Speech Buddies did not.

"This study has profound implications for the field of speech therapy," said Gordy Rogers, MS CCC-SLP, Chief Scientific Officer of Articulate Technologies, Inc. "When we developed these tools, our goal was to bring innovative technology to speech therapy that gives students a faster path. This study confirms that precise technology can really improve outcomes in speech therapy just like it does in other medical disciplines."

About 8 percent of elementary school children have an articulation disorder (such as a lisp, or not pronouncing the /r/ sound correctly). While some children find measurable success in traditional speech therapy, 28 percent do not.1 Speech Buddies are the first FDA-listed tool to add a systematic tactile cue to more effectively treat articulation disorders.

The clinical study examined the efficacy of tactile feedback to teach students the correct production of the /s/ sound. Children participating had never before received any speech therapy and every child had a frontal or lateral lisp. These children were split into two groups and given speech therapy lessons with a certified speech-language pathologist. Half of the children used Speech Buddies in these lessons, the other half did not. The study was a randomized, controlled, single-blind study, considered the gold standard for clinical efficacy trials.

After four total hours of therapy, the children were evaluated by a judge who did not know if Speech Buddies were used and the child's speaking accuracy was measured. The research showed that 88% of the children who used Speech Buddies had mastered the /s/ sound compared to 43% of the children who did not use these tools. The study was conducted by Rogers and Megan Chesin, College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University with results to be published in the Journal of the Pennsylvania Speech Language Hearing Association at the end of this month.

About Articulate Technologies, Inc.:

Articulate Technologies is committed to improving the lives of people living with speech and communication disorders by providing clinically proven treatment options. Articulate Technologies' two product lines are Speech Buddies for treating articulation disorders in children and Language Buddies for children and adults learning to speak English.

1 Gregory Jacoby et al., "The Number of Individual Treatment Units Necessary to Facilitate Functional Communication Improvements in the Speech and Language of Young Children," American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology 11 (2002): 370-80.